After sitting down, I set my bag at my feet just as I had done before. I look out the window. What was once a camp I loved was now a place I'd never look at the same.
"Hey, you good, man?" Conner says as he sits down beside me.
"Look at this place," I say. "It used to be so lively, but now it's like a ghost town."
The sky grew darker by the minute, clouds forming seemingly out of nowhere.
"Yeah," he says. "Listen, I don't know what you saw, but something is definitely off."
I look at him. "I'm just glad we're getting out of here."
Then the rain started. The buses began to drive.
"Well, at least we'll be home soon," he says.
I lean my head back and close my eyes, just thinking about everything that's happened. such a crazy week. I never want to come back here again.
The bus bumped up and down as it drove across the dirt road. We're almost out.
Next thing I knew, I was standing in a field.
"Where am I?"
The field has no end. It keeps going until it's swallowed by the dark of the night. I walk forward trying to find the end of the field, but no matter how far I walk, I never get any closer.
Eventually, I give up.
I turn around.
There's a cabin.
Where did that come from…?
I start walking again, away from the cabin. After walking for a few minutes, I turn around. The cabin is just as close as it was before.
How is that possible?
I walk towards the cabin. The darkness swallows the field around me, leaving almost nothing except the cabin.
I step onto the porch. Suddenly, a loud radio static fills the silence.
I wake up in a cold sweat, my body feeling stiff again. Conner is next to me with his headphones in.
It was just a dream.
I let out a sigh of relief, then scan the bus looking for Ken and Adrian. I see them sitting near the front.
Why didnt they sit with us?
I check my phone's map to see how far we are from the school. Ten minutes away. I had slept almost the whole drive.
We make it back to the school, and we all get off the bus. The air feels different from the campsite, almost cleaner, like a haze of darkness had been left behind.
We all meet up after the bus leaves.
"Well, I guess I'll see you all tomorrow," I say.
"Yep. I better see you all at school tomorrow," Conner says.
Adrian looks at him. "I'll come if I feel like it," he says.
Ken rolls his eyes.
All of our parents were there to pick us up. I get in my mom's car. The drive home was silent. She didn't say a word to me, which was weird since she was always a big talker.
I got home, then went inside. My dad wasn't home. He must be working another late night. Deep down, I knew what he was working on. He had been inside that cabin.
I get back to my room and fall down onto my bed. I lay there for what had to be almost an hour.
My mom knocks on my door. "Dinner is ready," she says.
I wasn't hungry, but I got up anyway.
At the dinner table, it was just me and her. My brother wasn't there.
"Where's Jacob?" I ask.
"He's at a friend's house staying the night," she says.
We didn't talk much. My guess was Dad had already talked to her about what happened, and she didn't want to make things worse by bringing it up.
I finish what I could of my food, then go back up to my room. I sit down at my desk and lay my head on
All this has to be real… right?
I lift my head up and open my laptop. I start searching online for the website again, but nothing comes up. There's no sign of it. It's almost as if it never existed.
I search up the camp. Maybe it has a history of something. I find nothing. The camp seemed completely normal.
Then I remembered the building.
I search for abandoned buildings nearby, and I find something. It looked kinda like the building we saw in the woods, but nicer. The word "Allen's" was on the building, though the rest of the words weren't visible.
I scroll down more, trying to find information. I saw people referring to it as "Allen's Home of Mysteries."
He was a magician who was famous for his "employees."
How is someone famous for their employees?
I keep looking into it. Allen was a poor man who suddenly found success in his failing career as a magician. People said they "really felt the magic" during his shows. His competitors didn't stand a chance against Allen.
"Seems like this guy was a big deal."
I keep scrolling even more, then find an article from a newspaper.
Magician Gone Missing.
I click on it. The paper was old.
"Famous magician gone missing. Please provide any information on his potential whereabouts."
Was this that Allen guy?
I keep reading. The paper talked about how the last place he was seen was after one of his shows. The building was closed off from the public and labeled a crime scene, but the magician was never found.
Could this have something to do with what happened?
I look at the time and see it's already almost 1:00 a.m.
I close my laptop and get ready for bed, the whole time thinking about that newspaper.
I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, then slowly drift off to sleep.